


Missing

by TheIcyQueen



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Angst, Gen, Pre-Kingdom Hearts III, Prompt Fill, Spoilers, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 08:32:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17700992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheIcyQueen/pseuds/TheIcyQueen
Summary: Radiant Garden's Castle was emptier than they were used to. They didn't want to talk about it.





	Missing

**Author's Note:**

> A prompt fill for triceraclops on tumblr! You can find me on tumblr as "queenofbaws," and my inbox is always open for prompts and the like :)

“Even is gone.”

“Have you checked the garden?” Ienzo asked, not bothering to look up from the screen of the small device in his hand. “You know how the elderly _love_ wandering in gardens…”

“ _Ienzo_.” Aeleus’s voice was firm in a way it hadn’t been since his uniform had been hooded. “Even is _gone_.” 

He did look up then, his expression veiled. “I heard you the first time.”

“They _took_ him.”

“Mmm.” He didn’t need to ask who or why or even _when_ ; nowadays, those questions were pointless, the answer always boiling down to the same thing. Xehanort–it was _always_ Xehanort, or _because of_ Xehanort, or _for_ Xehanort–same as it had been since before the Garden had fallen, and he’d only stood knee-high to the other Apprentices. Ienzo turned his attention back to the device in his palm, fingers tapping at the screen methodically. “Are we…surprised?” 

Aeleus sputtered, uncharacteristically taken aback. His face was hot with indignation, fingers itching for something heavy and blunt to swing at the walls, and it quickly dawned on him that this was real, righteous _anger_. The sort he hadn’t felt in a lifetime. “How can you be so _nonchalant?!”_ He flung his arm out in a gesture that didn’t feel half as cathartic as he had hoped, mouth pursing into a grimace when Ienzo didn’t so much as flinch. “You _know_ what’s going to happen to him! You _know_ what they’re going to do, you–”

There were a great many things Ienzo had learned in his short lifetime. Unfortunately, determining which battles to pick and which to let lie was not on that list. He set the device down onto the table and fixed Aeleus with the full intensity of his gaze, perfectly placid, almost horribly unmoved. “What do you want from me here? Hmm? Do you want me to…shout? Should I throw something? Break something?” He swept an arm out to the ruin of the laboratory around them, never breaking eye contact. “Not much left to smash.”

Before he could respond, there were footsteps from behind him, echoing flatly on the marble flooring. “What are we smashing?” Dilan asked groggily, absently rubbing at a knot of tense muscle at the back of his neck. His eyes moved slowly from Aeleus to Ienzo and back again, gaze calculating. “It seems I’ve interrupted.”

“Hardly,” Ienzo replied, voice toneless but curt. Still, he made no move to go back to his work, turning himself to better face the Guards. “They took Even,” he said in such a matter-of-fact way that Aeleus felt another red-hot surge of fury bloom upwards from his gut. 

Dilan seemed to contemplate that for a moment, folding his arms across his barrel of a chest. “Ah. And we’re…surprised?” 

Aeleus _did_ lash out then, grabbing up the damned thing Ienzo had been working on and hurling it across the lab. There was a distant _bang_ and a faint tinkle of broken glass from wherever it had landed. “Why are you _doing_ this?!” He whirled to face the both of them, arms spread wide, cheeks high with feverish color. “I _refuse_ to believe that neither of you _care!_ He’s _one of us!_ He’s _one of ours!_ All that we _had_ were each other, and now they just–” He let his voice drop, reaching up to knot frantic fingers into his own hair. It had been so long since they felt _anything_ , and now this…this was just…it was too much, too fast, too soon. 

Ienzo’s eyes had smoothly followed the arc of his project until it had shattered into a million tiny pieces. He let his gaze snap back to Aeleus, then, not without a hint of agitation. Slowly he blinked, the movement slow and thick as though he had a head cold, and leaned his weight against the table. “Wouldn’t you rather it be him tha–”

“Don’t.” Dilan flicked his eyes to Ienzo’s, raising a brow knowingly. “ _Don’t_.” 

To his own surprise, Ienzo shut his mouth, letting the sentiment hang half-finished in the air like so many dust motes.

“ _Where were_ you?!” he snapped, turning his ire back to Ienzo. “Even was _your_ charge! He was _your_ responsibility!” 

Eyes narrowing, Ienzo bristled beneath his labcoat. It was a gesture that would’ve been intimidating, had he still been Zexion, but now just made him seem a petulantly spoiled brat. “ _My_ responsibility?” He had considered standing from his chair until remembering precisely _how_ much taller the Guards were, and promptly rejected the idea. 

“Well, one thing we can agree on,” Dilan began, rolling his eyes up to the high ceiling, “Is that since I’ve been unconscious all this time, he _certainly_ wasn’t _mine_.”

 


End file.
